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Whether you are creating a little patch of Western prairie, adding accents to a contemporary garden or creating a bold billowing landscape, grasses need to be part of your design. The role of grass in western home landscapes is powerful—it creates a sense of place by echoing the textures and colors of the prairie beyond our towns. Grasses thrive under sun and wind and preserve through our dry open winters.

Native and adapted grasses don’t tax our water supply, are one of the most effective erosion control plantings and even provide food via their seeds for songbirds in winter. From the shortest tussock, looking like a sea urchin on land, to the tallest clump of blades and seed heads billowing in the wind, there are grasses to fit the bill.

For all the boldness of the texture and form, many gardeners really enjoy seeing subtle details of color and texture when the plants come into bloom and we all have noticed the continued year-round statement made by decorative grasses. It's hard to imagine an environmentally sustainable landscape without grasses.

Throughout this site, the following are used as guidelines for watering established plants:

These truly xeric plants can live with our 12 inches of natural annual precipitation and only need a winter watering during a multi-year drought, but they will thrive with a monthly watering. Overwatering will kill some of these.

These plants are adapted to intermittent deep
watering with soil drying to a depth of a few inches between waterings. Watering frequency may be every couple of weeks during the active growing season and maybe only one winter watering for optimal care.

These plants need regular watering somewhat like a bluegrass lawn so that
they never dry to depth in the root system during the active growing season, and need occasional winter watering to prevent root dessication and resultant plant
death.